Just for One Day
by purplehairedwonder
Summary: [4.16 tag] "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to help Nightbird infiltrate the Cheerios in order to gather evidence to end Coach Sylvester's reign of terror by graduation."


**Author's Note:** A little tag for "Feud" because the twist was my favorite. Also, I want all the Blam. Story title comes from David Bowie's "Heroes."

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing you recognize.

* * *

**Just for One Day**

* * *

Sam caught Blaine as he was walking out of Coach Sylvester's office, the box with his Cheerios uniform in hand. He still wasn't entirely sure what had just happened and was feeling bulldozed. Sam looked between Blaine and the box, raising an eyebrow.

"What's in the box?" he asked in his best Brad Pitt imitation.

"_Se7en_, nice," Blaine replied idly, toying with the edge of the box as Sam fell in step with him.

"Seriously, though, why'd you get called out of class?" Sam pressed as they stopped in front of Blaine's locker.

"Coach Sylvester wants me to join the Cheerios again," Blaine answered, dialing his combination and pulling his locker open. He eyed the box in his hand with a frown before shoving it in the locker.

He had genuinely liked the idea of being a Cheerio when he'd thought there'd be no more glee club; he loved performing and the Cheerios were the best other opportunity in the school to do so competitively. But then glee had come back and there had been no point in keeping up with it when he had that, student council, and several other extracurriculars on his college applications already.

"What? Are you going to?"

Blaine shook his head after a moment, feeling a little helpless. "She forged my signature on a contract and threatened me if I don't."

Sam's eyes widened comically at that. "She _threatened_ you?"

Blaine huffed a tired laugh. He'd done his best to avoid the worst ridiculousness of McKinley, especially without Kurt around to act as a translator, and had mostly stayed out of Coach Sylvester's crosshairs since his transfer, but every good run must come to an end, he supposed. At least graduation was only a couple of months away.

"You say that like it surprises you," Blaine said, pulling books out of his satchel and returning them to his locker.

Sam frowned. "That's not right, man. I mean, do you even have time for that with glee and student council?"

_Plus rehearsing for college auditions, keeping up a valedictorian-level GPA, talking to Kurt, and actually getting a couple of hours of sleep at night…_ he added silently and shook his head. "I really don't."

"So what are you going to do?"

Blaine paused as he grabbed a textbook. "Hope that if I ignore it, it'll just go away?" Sam gave him a Look and Blaine deflated. "I know, that won't help. I just… I won't let her _bully _me."

The word tasted bitter on his tongue, memories of past abuses always in the back of his mind. He remembered Kurt telling him that Coach Sylvester was one of the few people on his side when the bullying was at its worst his junior year—and Blaine had always respected her for that—but that didn't change what she was doing now. And hadn't he run his presidential campaign on an anti-bullying platform?

"You won't negotiate with terrorists?" Sam prompted.

Blaine's lips quirked up. "Something like that." He shook his head and shut his locker. "C'mon, we're going to be late for class."

* * *

It didn't take long for things to spiral out of control, with the cement hair gel, the identity theft, and the banner. Once the shock at _that_ had worn off, Blaine was incensed; there was nothing _wrong_ with being a bottom (and he and Kurt had always switched anyway so it wasn't even true), but that didn't change the perception of the rest of the student body, and sniggering had followed him in the halls for the rest of the day. The sounds sent shivers down his spine, an echo of his time at Westerville High preceding the Sadie Hawkins dance, and the thought that someone—an adult, an authority figure, and _educator_—would go so far to embarrass a student for something petty like cheerleading was downright infuriating.

Sam was waiting at Blaine's locker after he returned from confronting Coach Sylvester. He raised an eyebrow at Blaine, whose shoulders were tense, as he approached. Blaine was pretty sure that if he'd been a cartoon character, there would've been steam coming out of his ears.

"Didn't go well, I take it?"

Blaine shook his head in disgust, turning the numbers on his locker with more force than necessary. "She's not backing down." Not that Blaine had actually thought she would. "She challenged me to a sing-off in glee club."

"What?" Sam sputtered. "_You_?"

Blaine shook his head. "This is getting out of control," he muttered.

"So now what?" Sam asked, leaning back against the locker bank. "There's gotta be something we can do. I mean, we did rescue our Nationals trophy from Dalton and stop the Warblers."

"I—" Blaine pulled open his locker but paused when his eye caught the Nightphone. He usually left the thing in his locker except on days when the superhero club met, as most of the members had his regular cell number as well.

Sam was right; they'd faced injustice before, when they'd gotten their stolen trophy back and when they'd uncovered the steroids scandal. But this was something with further-reaching ramifications than a glee club competition; _this_ was bullying, and the entire reason he'd started the Secret Society of Superheroes was to make McKinley a safer place for the students—to make good on his campaign promise—and hopefully prevent anyone else from going through the things he'd once suffered.

"I can hear you thinking, dude."

Blaine grabbed the phone, thoughts already spinning. "I'm calling an emergency meeting of the Inner Circle," he said, waving the Nightphone at Sam.

Sam pushed himself upright, eyes lighting up. "I know that look. You've got a plan."

Blaine smiled grimly and shut his locker. "I'm starting to. But I'm going to need your help."

* * *

The Inner Circle of the Secret Society of Superheroes was actually just the seniors in glee. After talking it over with Sam, Blaine a message from the Nightphone, informing Tina, Artie, and Brittany to come to the usual classroom after school in civilian clothes since this was going to be an undercover mission.

"Where's Brittany?" Blaine asked once the others had arrived, Tina and Artie looking curiously between Blaine and Sam.

"At the vet. Lord Tubbington is smoking again and needs to go back on the patch," Sam replied with a shrug. "She had to leave school early today."

Blaine knew better than to question that, so just nodded. "Then I call this emergency meeting of the Inner Circle to order." Artie had borrowed his gavel for some glee mediation earlier in the week and hadn't returned it yet.

"What's going on Nightb— Blaine?" Artie asked, correcting himself at Blaine's look.

"I have something I'd like to propose," Blaine said. "The goal of this club has been to help make McKinley a safer place for the students, right?" At his friends' nods, Blaine took a breath and continued. "One of the biggest sources of danger for the student body has been Coach Sylvester. And now she's taken her bullying too far."

"Is this about the Cheerios?" Tina asked, eyes narrowing. She was definitely still bitter that Coach Sylvester had called her out of class only to dismiss her like she wasn't worth anything while also trying to court Blaine back to the group.

"And the sign?" Artie asked, waggling his eyebrows.

Blaine rolled his eyes. He'd already spent his anger on it in Coach Sylvester's office. Now wasn't the time for anger—it was the time for action.

"Yes, all of that. She's trying to get me back on the Cheerios and challenged me to a sing-off for feud week."

Artie choked. "Wait, seriously?"

Blaine nodded. "If I win, no Cheerios. If she wins, I'm back on the team."

"I agree that the sign was pretty low, but would rejoining the Cheerios really be that bad?" Tina asked. "It's not like we don't have Cheerios in glee."

As far as Blaine was concerned, the fact that it didn't register to anyone else that a sign like that—or the cement gel or identity theft for that matter—would be absolutely unacceptable and the grounds for immediate dismissal at any other school was just further proof that something had to be done.

"That's not really what this is about," Blaine said, nodding at Sam to continue.

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it," he said, "is to help Nightbird infiltrate the Cheerios in order to gather evidence to end Coach Sylvester's reign of terror by graduation."

"You're serious," Tina said in wonder. "Wow."

"Very serious," Blaine agreed.

Tina and Artie exchanged looks and, after a moment, identical grins began spreading on their faces. Blaine let out a relieved breath, and he felt some of the tension drain from his shoulders.

"We're in," Artie informed them.

"It can be our legacy to this school," Tina added with a determined nod.

Blaine beamed at Sam. The two of them alone could probably get the plan working, but it would be much easier if they had other allies. "Perfect."

"So what's the plan?" Artie asked, eyeing Blaine and Sam.

"I'm going to throw the sing-off," Blaine explained. He and Sam had talked it over and had worked out a general plan during their afternoon classes.

Artie winced and Blaine shrugged apologetically. Blaine knew that Artie expected constant perfection from his leading men—it was something he'd never totally let go of since Blaine had played Tony in _West Side Story_ and had picked up again with his upcoming movie project.

"Won't Coach Sylvester know something is up?" Tina pointed out. "She's smart."

"He's not gonna _totally_ bomb it," Sam broke in. "But that's where you guys come in. We need to convince the others to not vote for Blaine as the winner, even out of loyalty."

"Kitty probably won't need any convincing," Tina muttered. "Actually, we probably shouldn't tell her at all. She'll probably vote for Coach Sylvester anyway."

"Joe's at home with the flu," Artie added thoughtfully.

"And we should probably keep Sugar out of the choir room that day so she doesn't spill the secret," Tina went on.

"_Someone_ should vote for Blaine, though," Artie considered. "It'll look fishy of the lead soloist gets no support."

"I will," Tina volunteered immediately.

Blaine looked over at Sam as Tina and Artie continued musing over how to get the plot to work. They exchanged a grin and Blaine's stomach fluttered a bit; he'd been over that silly crush on his best friend for a while now, but Sam was still attractive and really, really sweet, and sometimes Blaine just felt incredibly lucky that he and Sam had become close this year.

"Do you think you can handle going undercover like that, Blaine?" Artie asked, pulling Blaine's attention back to the meeting. "If she has any idea… Well, she thought I spiked the punch at prom sophomore year and she threatened to pull my teeth out."

Blaine pinched the bridge of his nose; the insanity of McKinley… No, this was just another reason this mission had to be done, he told himself. He shook himself and looked up.

"I'm a pretty good actor," he reminded Artie, who nodded. "I think I can handle it."

Tina bit her lip a moment before speaking. "Are you sure you _want_ to, though?"

Blaine smiled his appreciation for the thought. "I don't think she's going to let up about it, so might as well make the best of the situation, right?" When Tina opened her mouth again, Blaine cut her off. "It's fine, Tina. This was _my_ idea, remember? I'm making the choice here. But thank you."

"We're on your side, Nightbird," Artie said solemnly, holding his hand out for a fist bump.

Blaine laughed but put his fist out to meet Artie's. Tina bumped hers against Blaine's and Artie's, and Sam put his in to complete the circle.

"As always," Sam said, looking around the group, "should you or any of your allies be caught or given detention, the Secret Society of Superheroes will disavow any knowledge of your actions."

* * *

_fin_


End file.
